July 24, 2007
Sharing with Writers
A newsletter that is also a community. Share your ideas. Learn from theirs!

From the Desks of
Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Authors' Coalition Friends
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"Sharing with Writers" is the official newsletter of Authors' Coalition,

http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com

an organization of writers who help writers.

To read this letter in plain vanilla text, scroll down. To read this newsletter with a bit more pizzazz (not much, though!) at Authors Den go to:

http://www.AuthorsDen.com/adstorage/1713/Sharingwithwriters_July_No4Week2007.doc

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Note from Carolyn:

My fellow AC Members and SWW Subscribers:

This week's letter is coming early because you won't get one for at least another two weeks. And, naturally there are a couple things I want to share with you that I think just can't wait. Ahem!

One is Shelfari.com. It seems to be related to Facebook but it's all about BOOKS. I think it's relatively new so it might be a good time to get some face time (get it?) early with readers and other authors by joining early.

Shelfari operates like lots of groups out there (Myspace, etc) but it's dedicated to book discussions. Some of you may have already received an invitation from me (Shelfari makes it easy by collecting names from AOL or Yahoo or Google, etc. and sending out invitations automatically!). Those of you who didn't are welcome to join me by using this link

http://www.shelfari.com/invite/2zeSPJiYWDsJNBxdSBcZXA

While you're there, post your own profile. And here's my tip. Use your book cover art instead of your face. That way when you communicate with readers, they will see a visual of your cover every time.

And here's some other advice: Don't just list your own books on your shelf. You can list them, but include the books of others. That way you honor what this group is all about. Discussing books. Fostering reading. And how great is that!? Something we all want to support.

Happy, happy writing and promoting!
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HoJoNews@aol.com
Websites: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com and www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepess.com Blogs: A blog focused on book fairs at
http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson and another blog that is about writing and reading at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com and
www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com

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New members will help Authors' Coalition serve all its members better! Ask your writing friends to join at http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com. Paid members get a favorite review posted, consideration for an interview or review in Yarnspinners and Wordweavers and ditto for The Fiction Flyer. Membership is reasonable, too.
Tell friends to visit our blog. There they'll learn how to spark generally insipid book fairs by using value-added promotions: http://redenginepress.com/chjohnson .
http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com
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Letters-to-the-Editor

Carolyn,
Re. the billboard advertising tip [in last week's newsletter], a good (much cheaper) route to go is to get magnetic signs made with your book covers on them that you can stick on the doors of your car. Even if cars zip by you, you know somebody who is stopped at the stoplights beside you is going to read them. Besides, if you have multiple books out, you can easily change them with the season or the one you are promoting at the moment.
Janet Elaine Smith
Author of more than a dozen books including PromoPaks for authors
Learn more at www.janetelainesmith.com

Editor's Note: Car magnets are available through Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). A link for them is on the home page. Be sure to scroll to the far right column where you'll see a sample car magnet for Joyce Faulkner's In the Shadow of Suribachi.

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Subscribers who have websites or newsletters of their own may be interested in the Free Articles 4 Readers and Writers on my site, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. I try to add new articles to it each week. If you don't see what you need for your blog, or newsletter, just ask. HoJoNews@aol.com.
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Thank Yous

(There are leads here, just as you'll find in all the most innocent-looking areas of this newsletter. You never know when you'll find a name or a site that will help you network or write better!)

To Mary Emma Allen, for mentioning my rill on Harry Potter and retailing on her blog at http://maryemmallen.blogspot.com/2007/07/harry-potter-loss-leaders.html. Those of you who read last week's newsletter probably read that piece, but she also gives a link to an article by Yvonne Perry on a similar subject you might so you might want to read that, too. (-: .

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No part of this newsletter is paid advertising. If you would like to advertise to subscribers, display ads are available at www.howtodoitfrugally.com at less per year than most sites charge for a single month (see the advertising tab at the top of the page). Authors' Coalition www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com is also accepting ads.
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If you enjoy "Sharing with Writers" please nominate it for Writer's Digest's 101 Best Newsletters for Writers. We aren't big, we aren't old. So it would take a huge outpouring from subscribers to make a dent. Send an e-mail to writersdig@fwpubs.com with subject line, "101 Best Newsletters for Authors" and let them know what this newsletter does for you!
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West Hollywood Fair Booth Space

Authors' Coalition is sponsoring a booth at the West Hollywood Fair. Paid participating AC subscribers are Joyce Faulkner, Carol Wood, Erica Stux, Janet Goliger, Jay Bern, Leora Krygier, Walter Brasch, Sona Ovasapyan, Christine Alexanians, Kevin Gerard and Carol Wood. To learn more, e-mail me with BOOK FAIR in the subject line at hojonews@aol.com or go to the new blog on fairs (got a new one that works!) at www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com. By the way, this is a cross-promotion effort. Participants need to plan to send out media releases (with my guidance) and invitations. (-:
Check out the fair at http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org/

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Please pass this letter on to others. Unlike many others, I do not mind if you use only portions of it as long as you credit the writers and include this subscribe information. "To subscribe to 'Sharing with Writers' send an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com with 'subscribe' in the subject line."
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Author Successes

(If you read about others' successes you'll not only be inspired, you'll glean resources for future successes of your own. You are invited to send me news about your successes. Please use "AUTHOR SUCCESSES" as a subject lines.)

Janet Elaine Smith's popular e-book PromoPaks: Almost Free Marketing for Authors will soon be released by Star Publish LLC. (www.starpublish.com). That means you can set them beside you so it is easy for you to refer to them no matter what kind of marketing efforts you are doing at the moment. Author Barbara Williamson-Wood calls them "Every writer's marketing Bible."

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Fun and F r * *: If you purchased The
Frugal Book Promoter in the past, I'd love for you to review it on Amazon or BN.com. Make it simple; just tell what part of it you found most valuable. If you do, send me the review link (URL) and I will send you an excerpt from The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success that is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The excerpt includes some of the sidebars from the book that may help you with some tricky grammar. As a thank you, of course. HoJoNews@aol.com, the Frugal Book
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Carolyn's Appearances and Teaching:

Yvonne Perry's Writers in the Sky podcast/interview is still available on iTunes.com and may be accessed on Yvonne’s blog http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com .
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Carolyn will moderate a panel titled
Reach for Your Dream: Prepare for Publication the Professional Way
at the West Hollywood Book Fair on September 30. Circle your calendars. It's f r ^ ^ Even those who are old hands at publishing will learn something new, I promise!
West Hollywood Park
647 N San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Learn more at http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org/
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Carolyn will speak at the fourth Annual Pen to Paper Literary Symposium October 6, 2007, Dayton Marriott, 1414 S. Patterson Blvd Dayton, Ohio, 45409. The conference, spearheaded by Valerie Coleman, will include tracks for music and screenwriting, in addition to writing and publishing books. Start planning now to attend this elite event and take advantage of the early bird special (www.penofthewriter.com/pentopaper).
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson will speak at the Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word (October 12-14) in Nashville, TN. The subject is Realize Your Dream: From Query Letter to Bestseller--Frugally!
The time will be announced later. And don't you just love the title of the fair? You'll find more information on this fair and others you might participate in at www.howtodoitfrugally.com. Click on the Resources for Writers page and scroll down. For more on this specific fair, go to
http://tn-humanities.org/festival.
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The f r ^ ^ Muse Online Writers' Conference, sponsored by Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is accepting early registration. More than 1,000 attended last year and openings are limited. Learn more about this year's conference, October 8 to 14, and how you can assure your spot in 2007. We will present an all-new program soon. Go to:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/presentersregistration.htm
To see the growing list of presenters go to: http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/2007workshops.htm

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Sign up to receive a copy of my Sharing with Writers blog in your e-mail box. It is a focused blog on all things related to writing and publishing from scolding Oprah to free speech. Go to www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com. Sign up in the left hand column. Find related resources by scrolling to the bottom of the blog.
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Using HBO and IMBD to Brand Yourself

I'm doing it both places with reviews/blogs, etc about Big Love. That's because it is set in the same place as my novel, This is the Place, and many of the stories in Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered.

Anyone watching this series? I'd love to have you go by and leave a comment. Most of the stuff on this site is by people who seem to think the characters are real. I think there is something in this series that's more useful than pure entertainment (sorry! (-; ) Like learning about a culture from which one of our presidential candidates springs. Yes, that would be Mitt Romney. Like examining bigotry--especially bigotry based on ignorance. And more. And yes, I started this blog to make people aware that there is other entertaining material out there using Utah -- dare I say the real Utah?--out there including my award-winning novel.

http://boards.hbo.com/profile.jspa?userID=700026618

Now, can you think of something similar to do for your book?
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Carolyn's Appearances and Teaching for 2008:

As you can see 2008 is already beginning to fill. I will be sharing with the nation's humor writers again in the spring of 2008 at Dayton University's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. I'll speak twice at the Kennedy Union on campus. http://www.humorwriters.org/

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Booth opportunities at the West Hollywood Book Fair. E-mail me now. They're filling up fast.
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A general marketing rule is that a product must be seen seven times before it is purchased. That is just as true for books. Let people see that book cover image! So, you are invited to advertise as a site sponsor at www.howtodoitfrugally.com. for a year at the same price many sites frequented by readers and writers charge in a year. Yep, the frugal way! Click on the Advertising tab at the top of the page or contact me personally at hojonews@aol.com.
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New Page on My Site

I've avoided telling you all about my travels and my travel writing for some time. However, now that my husband is feeling more like traveling again, I thought I'd add a celebratory page. Find picture of me sailing (well, sort of!) the Americas Cup Stars and Stripes. See the Mercedes jeep-like thing (my description--not theirs!) we bounced around in on Catalina, and read a sample travel article and a couple of my travel-inspired poems. http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/travels_with_carolyn.htm.

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Available: Audios from Audio Divas on many aspects of building a writing career are published by Double Dragon Press. Here is the page where you'll find the full list (http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/glist.php?imprint=AUDIO) including one on "Do It Yourself Indexing." The first audio, "Promoting Easy and Cheap!" is a
F R ^ ^ sample you can download. Each comes with a resource guide. Here is an example of a guide for the audio-lesson Your Divas did on "Contests": http://www.derondouglas.com/audiosample/AwardResourceGuideContests.pdf
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Opportunities:

Publication: New Writing Opportunity from Writer Advice in October, Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com , will celebrate its ten-year anniversary. They have grown from an e-mail newsletter sent to 35 people to an e-zine with nearly 15000 hits in the last two and a half years.

To help them celebrate, consider the following:

How has your writing life changed since October, 1997? Hone in on a moment when your perceptions about writing changed.
What happened?
What did you discover?
How did it change you?

The editor, B. Lynn Goodwin, will accept either prose or poetry for this assignment. Draft, revise, share with fellow writers, revise again, and when your writing resonates, cut and paste it into a new e-mail and send it to Lgood67334@comcast.net (cut and paste) with Ten Year Anniversary in the subject box.

Short, gripping pieces that capture a specific moment and touch readers are the ones most likely to be published in the anniversary issue. Lynn doesn't promise that we will read your work unless you mail it to the correct address, Lgood67334@comcast.net , and put "Ten Year Anniversary" in the subject box.

Please include a short bio (forty words or less) with your submission.

Deadline: August 28, 2007
No fees or cash prizes. Just publication.

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Authors' Coalition members! For credibility, use the AC logo on your promotional materials. Ask for it by sending an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com or download it with a click from the AC site http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.
Be sure to link it to the AC site, too! You know you want it on your website!
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"AC is the current that powers your writing career." http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Authors' Coalition Founder
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Resources
From Elizabeth Lucas-Taylor

(Elizabeth contributes at least one valuable paying resource per SWW issue--either a great place to sell material or find writing craft or promotional idea--and sometimes throws in a resource for you.)

ENTOMOLOGY & HISTORY OF FIRST NAMES - This is a great website for those writing historical novels as it tells you when the name was invented and what its origins are.
http://www.behindthename.com

ETYMOLOGY & HISTORY OF LAST NAMES - English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, German, French, Jewish, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian, Basque, Belgian, the list goes on and on . http://surnames.behindthename.com
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Find Elizabeth at http://www.authorsden.com/elucastaylor or her new blog at http://www.elucas-taylor.blogspot.com/ or at MySpace http://www.myspace.com/elucastaylor
where you will find a writers' community.

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Reciprocal Links: Many subscribers are in a position to cross-promote. Let me know if you would like to trade some recommendation or promotion for any of my books -- the HowToDoItFrugally Series to my chapbook of poetry -- for a place on my Resources for Writers or Resources for Readers pages on www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.
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I use Vista Print for lots of my promotional materials. Be aware that shipping prices may fluctuate, depending on the deal of the moment. Even at that, the prices generally are good, the products they offer excellent quality and they do short runs. (I don't advise long runs on promotion material because your needs can change very quickly.) Please use this link:
http://www.vistaprint.com/frf?frf=815651421184
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Web Advice from WebforAuthors.com Expert Marshall Turner

The Linking Trap
As I’ve mentioned before, having inbound links (links from other sites to yours) is important. But do not fall for a scheme that promises to provide you with thousands of links. Some of these are link farms – websites that have nothing but links on them. While this does link to your site, the search engines consider this spam and may penalize your site by lowering its ranking or suppressing it from the search results. The lesson here is to cultivate legitimate links. Besides, you want targeted visitor, people who have an interest in you and your work. Random links from unrelated sites do little good.
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website at http://www.webforauthors.com/ or contact Marshall at mturner@webforauthors.com.

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The New Book Review is a service of this newsletter and Authors' Coalition. It allows authors to get more exposure from their favorite review and reviewers a chance to have more readers see their reviews--with links, of course. Please check the guidelines on the blog site at www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. This has been popular so please allow some time before your review will be posted. ====================================================

E-Tips for E-Promotion

We don't have to be techno geniuses to make e-mail work for us, but we have to build lists for it to do the best job it can for us.

So, when people e-mail you, save their e-mail. Code their listing or put them onto separate lists. Personal. Business. Kids School. Writers' Conferences. That way when you write to tell them about your new book, you can make the list more personal even though you're not sending the posts one at a time. This is an old-fashioned way of doing things (unlike the new HTML letters that will personalize by name automatically), but it works just fine.
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This is a regular Sharing with Writers feature by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of USA Book News' Best Professional Book THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T and the soon-to-be released THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS. (E-tips for E-promotion was originally a regular feature of SellWritingOnline.com.)

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Endorsement:
"www.HowToDoItFrugally.com , by Carolyn Howard--Johnson [is] a top website for writers . . . I'd say my ROI is over 1,000%. The advice is particularly strong in addressing the new author where they are in learning the publishing/selling process. Very practical. The site is excellent." ~ Hill Kemp, author of Capitol Offense, http://www.capitoloffense.com/, and contributor to Secrets, Fact or Fiction? I, ISBN 0-9737282-5-6 and Secrets, Fact or Fiction? II, ISBN 1-59594-062-6, LOC 2006904627, http://www.secretsfactorfiction.com
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Wordstuff ™

Something to Make Writers Smile
(Every year the Washington Post conducts a neologism contest. These are the winners, one at a time. You might have some favorite neologisms metaphors or similes that make you smile. If so, please contribute.)

"Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you."

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Essential Book and Record Keeping:

This letter is an entity of Authors' Coalition http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com

Edited and distributed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson,

http://carolynhoward-johnson.com

author of This Is the Place, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, Tracings, and the How To Do It Frugally Series of books for writers, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

This is a place to share with others and learn from others.

Though I do attempt to verify information used within this newsletter's pages, Sharing with Writers does not guarantee entities or information. Subscribers should research resources

To submit information articles, tips or other information e-mail Carolyn at HoJoNews@aol.com. Please put "Submission: Sharing with Writers" in the subject line.

If you do not care to receive this letter, send an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com with "Unsubscribe in the subject line, but please, please don't tell me you've given up writing or promoting!

To subscribe to Sharing with Writers send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HoJoNews@aol.com

Please pass this newsletter on to friends or e-groups. It needn't be pasted in its complete form, but please credit this newsletter, Authors' Coalition and the individual contributors with anything you snip and paste.

Order the Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't
at stores like UCLA, Dayton University and San Diego State University's bookstores. Order it as an e-book at http://starpublish.com/carolyn_howard-johnson.htm

or paperback at Amazon where it is discounted:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/qid=1149015406/sr=2-1/

Tracings, a chapbook of poetry, published by Finishing Line Press may be ordered at www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/qid=1139084827/sr=1-1/